Alysa Liu Height, Age, Family, Biography » StarsUnfolded

Some Lesser Known Facts About Alysa Liu

• Alysa Liu was born in Clovis, California, and raised in Richmond.

• Her father, Arthur Liu, is a Chinese activist who had to leave China in 1989 after the government’s crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests. He came to the United States through a rescue effort called Operation Yellowbird, which helped protesters escape safely.

• Alysa is the oldest of five children. She has a sister named Selina and triplet siblings Joshua, Justin, and Julia. All of the children were born through surrogacy using two anonymous egg donors. Their mother, Yan Qingxin “Mary,” continued to serve as their legal guardian after Arthur and her divorce.

• She attended a Chinese school in Los Angeles, but later her father enrolled her in the Oakland School for the Arts, which had a figure skating program. As she began to travel more for competitions and missed many classes, she switched to California Connections Academy and studied through homeschooling at her father’s law office between training sessions.
  

  Alysa Liu (middle) in her preteen years

• She finished high school in June 2021 when she was just 15 years old, and in 2023, she joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is studying psychology (as of 2026).

• Liu began skating at age five. Initially, she began taking group lessons with her first and childhood coach, Laura Lipetsky, a former figure skater. Within six months, she moved to individual sessions with her coach.

• In 2015, at the Central Pacific Regionals, she came in seventh place.

• In 2016, at the 2016 U.S. Championships, she became the youngest female skater who won the intermediate gold medal.

• At the 2017 Asian Open Trophy, Liu finished in second place.

• In 2018, at the 2018 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California, she was the youngest skater to compete in the junior division.

• At the 2018 World Junior Championships, Liu was ineligible to compete because she was not old enough, so she was sent to the 2018 International Challenge Cup, where she won the advanced novice silver medal.

• In August 2018, at the Asian Open Trophy held in Bangkok, Liu competed as a novice and won a gold medal. During her free skate, she landed a ratified triple Axel, making her the youngest skater in history to perform a clean triple Axel in competition successfully. She also became the fourth American female skater to achieve this feat, after Tonya Harding, Kimmie Meissner, and Mirai Nagasu.

• In August 2019, Liu made her international competition debut at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid. In the competition, she broke her own personal best short program record by almost 20 points.

• During the same competition, she made history by becoming the first American female skater to complete a quadruple Lutz. Additionally, she was the first female skater to perform both a quadruple jump and a triple Axel in the same program during a competition.

• In 2019, Liu was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list that shines a light on the next generation of rising leaders.

• In May 2020, Gold House and honors, Los Angeles, honored Liu in the list of Gold House A100 Honoree. The A100 List is released annually by Gold House and honors the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders across a variety of industries, such as business, technology, fashion and beauty, entertainment, music, and sport.

• In 2020, she was ineligible to compete in international senior-level competitions, so she was named to the 2020 World Junior Championships team. After the compeition she was ranked third in the world among juniors.

•  In August 2021, Liu made her senior international debut at the Cranberry Cup at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA.

• In October 2021, she made her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate Canada International, where she placed fourth in the short program segment.

• In January 2022, Liu tested positive for COVID-19, so she withdrew from the U.S. Championships in Nashville. However, she was allowed to join the 2022 U.S. Winter Olympic team. She was the youngest athlete selected for the American Olympic team that year.

• Before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu was seen as a top athlete China wanted to recruit under its program to bring overseas athletes into the team. However, her father refused the offer. He said he would not agree because of concerns about human rights issues in China.

• In March 2022, at the 2022 World Championships, Alysa won a bronze medal and became the first American woman to medal at the World Championships since Ashley Wagner in 2016, and only the second since 2006.

• In April 2022, she announced her retirement from figure skating. On Instagram, announcing her retirement, she wrote,

I was so into skating that I really didn’t do much else. Skating takes up your whole life, almost. I don’t know if other people kind of feel the same when they look back at certain parts of their life, but for me, it’s definitely a blur, because it kind of meshes together, you know – going to the rink, going home, competing. There were many, many times when I didn’t enjoy it.”

• At that time, her early retirement would have made her the first American women’s singles skater, not competing for the second Olympics since 2002 gold medalist Sarah Hughes.

• In March 2024, Liu announced that she is returning to figure skating and in October 2024 competed at the 2024 CS Budapest Trophy, her first competition post annoucing her retirement.

• In April 2025, Liu was selected for Team USA at the 2025 World Team Trophy, where she won the short and free program segments of the women’s competition, and Team USA won the gold medal.
  

  Alysa Liu (left) with Team USA at the 2025 World Team Trophy

• In February 2026, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu won gold and became the first American woman to win a medal in figure skating at the Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2006 and the first to win gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
  

  Alysa Liu (middle) at the 2026 Winter Olympics

• Along with figure skating, Alysa Liu also performed in snow skating in the Sun Valley on Ice summer shows in 2019 and 2021. After she first announced her retirement, she toured across the United States with Stars on Ice in 2022. She later rejoined Stars on Ice for the U.S. tour in May 2025 and returned for the 2026 season.

• She has appeared in many commercial ads, including for Toyota Cars, Nike, Samsung Galaxy, and Gillette Venus.
• Along with that, she also featured in several news and fashion magazines, such as International Figure Skating Magazine, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Elle.
  

  Alysa Liu on the cover page of Elle magazine

• Alysa Liu is also known for her special “halo” hairstyle, where she adds a hair band each year she skates, making it look like tree rings. She also has a small piercing on her lip.
  

  Alysa Liu’s special “halo” hairstyle

• Liu publicly shared that she is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), where she experiences difficulties in maintaining focus on a single topic.

• Alysa Liu is an avid fan of Manga and Anime, comics, and graphic novels.